By Bartee Haile

His fate was already sealed when Gov. James Edward Ferguson rose to speak on Sept. 24, 1917.

The defiant defendant aimed his parting shot not at the 28 jurors, whose minds were already made up, nor the hostile gallery but at the people of Texas. “You have decided to remove me from office so that another man can take it. But you have made a political issue which will follow you and which this state will fight over for the next twenty years.”

Moments later the senate voted...